The Seventh Tower - Aenir by Garth Nix

First published in 2001.

The dream world Aenir is not a safe place. One wrong step can lead to danger, entrapment…or death. Tal and Milla must fight their way through this shifting landscape. They are searching for the Codex, a magical object that will decide the fate of their worlds. Many creatures stand in their way–from the cloud-flesh Storm Shepherds to a swarm of venomous Waspwyrms to a horrifying figure named Hazror. Tal and Milla cannot leave Aenir without the Codex. But finding it might endanger them more than they’ve ever dreamed… (www.bn.com)

This book is by far the best out of the three that I read. The writing shifted away from focusing on the world and pushing the world and started focusing on plot and action and ‘are they going to make it out alive?’ About halfway through the book I remember thinking, ‘now we’re getting somewhere.’

So long as Tal doesn’t think because he definitely is a little on the pansy side, not to mention that superiority complex comes back into play every now and then. I don’t like reading about that because without Milla, Tal would be vulture food and he really hasn’t seen that yet. However I’ll give him points for pushing himself more than he ever has, especially with Hazror and the Codex, where he was essentially carrying a door with a dislocated shoulder out from under a mountain that was falling on them. I’d probably do the same thing without crying as much as he was but good for him for reaching beyond his comfort zone, at least physically.

While Milla is still pretty two dimensional, I’m liking her even more just because of how strong of a person she really is. Stubborn as all hell but strong nonetheless. The best moment for her is seeing her in her prime, fighting at the castle. She really is a warrior (not that I doubted that before), not to mention a real leader in a dire situation. Again, without her, Tal would have been captured because he never would have left his brother behind without Milla’s insistence. She really is a great character and is my favorite in the series.

And I really like the Geico gecko in Aenir. He’s something like a Kushkar (I believe that’s the name), this little talking, fighting, walking history book of a lizard. I want one. I wonder if he can save me money on my car insurance. I don’t know if he’s supposed to look like a talking gecko but that’s the image I immediately got from him.

There were a few things that bothered me about this one. There were a few instances of keyboard mashing here, especially with the lizard’s name and his language. It took me as long to sound out the name of his language as it did for me to read a page. Is that necessary? There were less conveniences in this one but they were still there in the shape of the Storm Shepherds and the Codex (although the Storm Shepherds were sometimes more detrimental than they were helpful so they get a partial pass). And some of Tal’s revelations just seemed kind of contrived. Like the guilt he had for taking Milla’s shadow. It’s only when he hears her name that he’s like, ‘oh yeah, I feel guilty about that.’ It just didn’t sit right with me.

Sushin is the biggest issue I have with all of the books. Even at the end of this one, with the reader getting an inkling of what he actually is, he just seems like a character there for no other purpose than to give Tal these struggles and journeys. He’s the antagonist but for no reason that we know. I want to find out what his problem is but at the same time I really don’t because I’m afraid it’s going to be something insubstantial. He’s nothing but a piece of motivating force for action at this point and I’m getting kind of aggravated by it. I like to know why my villains are the way they are. I don’t like just seeing them being evil without a point or used as a catalyst for plot in the stories.

If you can make it through the first one, I’d actually recommend reading these because they do get better as they go along. I’m not about to run out and buy the next book in the series to find out what happens (although finding out about the history of the wars and The Forgetting is pretty damn intriguing) but when I get a chance (who knows when that’ll be with the size of my TBR pile), I wouldn’t mind finishing them. I’m just not in a rush to do it.

The Seventh Tower - Castle by Garth Nix

First published in 2000.

I’m having issues finding a synopsis for just this book instead of the entire series and the book I have is a three-in-one so that’s not all that helpful either. So I’ll try and sum this one up for you.

Tal has bound himself to Milla, and vise versa, in order to get himself back to the castle. In exchange for his safe return, he must get Milla a Sunstone in order for her to take it back to the Icecarls. Getting back into the castle, since Tal hasn’t heard of anyone actually doing it, proves much more difficult than climbing up a mountain. He’s pushed to the physical and mental limits that even he didn’t know he had, not to mention he starts to question his own standing in life. When Tal and Milla are captured by henchmen of Sushin, Tal’s mortal enemy for unknown reasons, he has to figure a way out of the mess he’s in and help Milla because it is his fault, after all, that she ended up trapped in his world and incarcerated in the Hall of Nightmares.

I have to say, this one is much better than the first, not only in writing style but in exposition as well. I think it had a lot to do with it shifting back and forth between Tal being someplace foreign and Milla being someplace foreign so there’s a lot more explanation going on which helps to develop the story in my head a little better. That’s not to say it doesn’t have its moments of ‘what is that?’ because it just gives you a name without a basis for comparison, but it’s quelled a lot.

By the end Tal gets over his “Milla’s barely a step above Underfolk” superiority that he carried for a large enough chunk of this book that it was still annoying. The girl saved his ass time and time again yet he saw her as beneath him, in some fashion or another. Product of his upbringing, I know, but usually, when someone stops death from taking your life, you’re grateful, not expectant that that’s how it should be regardless. Granted Milla isn’t exactly a daisy to be around but at least she doesn’t have the caste mind that Tal has.

I was getting pretty annoyed with all of the conveniences that seemed to surround Tal to help him out of otherwise futile situations. The more I see and understand these Spiritshadows and shadowguards, the more I see them as deus ex machina pieces that serve to make the journey easier for the MC, to help him out of situations he’d otherwise get stuck in. A security blankie. The things just proved too useful.

As did Uncle Ebbitt. Aside from the fact that his “wacky” demeanor felt contrived, at best, he always seemed to appear at the most opportune moments to help Tal along. When he was in the Pit, that was supposed to be an illegal holding cell. You’d think it’d be under better guard and an Underfolk with a hacksaw in a cake wouldn’t be able to get by and give it to Tal. Or how Ebbitt comes in to save the day just at the moment Tal’s able to get out of the Pit.

I did like Milla’s ability to thwart Fashnek and his crystal globe of nightmares. That, to me, made sense because she’s not of that world. She holds powers that they don’t know of so to see her exhibit something that was otherwise unfamiliar was almost expected. The execution of relaying why she had that power seemed a little forced, but the power itself was pretty cool.

With Tal leveling out and doing things for the greater good instead to protect his image, not to mention the stilts of the story getting shorter, the books are getting more tolerable. It’s decent but I’m still leaning towards this kind of high type of fantasy to not really be my thing. It’s a little much, especially when the emphasis is on the world instead of the characters, the situation or the plot.

The Seventh Tower - The Fall by Garth Nix

First published in 2000.

Tal has lived his whole life in darkness. He has never left his home, a mysterious castle of seven towers. He does not see the threat that will tear apart his family and his world.

But Tal cannot stay safe forever. When danger strikes, he must desperately climb the Red Tower to steal a Sunstone. He reaches the top…

…and then he falls into a strange and unknown world of warriors, iceships, and hidden magic. There Tal makes an enemy who will save his life—and holds the key to his future. (bn.com)

I. Am. So. Lost. I’ve never read a book and come out this disoriented before. Holy crap. Right from the beginning you’re shoved into this world with weird names being thrown at you, many without any kind of explanation so you’re left to try and figure out just what this something’s supposed to look like but you have no idea because it could rightly be anything. That . . . was a huge turn off for me. Immediately I’m supposed to know what all of this stuff is, what’s going on, why it’s so important to get into Aenir. And I don’t. I’m just told that’s how it is. Therein lies the major flaw.

It doesn’t say why it’s so important to get a Sunstone and be able to get into Aenir. The book just says you have to and it becomes Tal’s life journey from the moment he finds out his father’s missing. He has relatives and this Sushin guy that treat him like a steaming pile of crap without any real reason. Apparently there was some shenanigans between Sushin and someone in Tal’s family and he’s taking it out on him. Mature. As for the female relatives, I have no idea why they’re bitches, but they are. I did feel a little pang of anger at how they were treating him but that was pretty fleeting.

It also seems that young Tal has a bit of a superiority complex, not to mention a huge amount of selfishness. The complex could rightly be a product of his surroundings. It seems that’s just how this world lives. But damn is this kid selfish. He considers leaving behind his guide, a warrior girl that’s really no older than he is (about 13) to die in the cold but decided not to not because he thinks it’d be wrong and she should be saved, but because of what other people would think of him. Commendable, I tell you. O_o The thing is, he seems like a really bright kid who should know better. But he doesn’t. He doesn’t want to get her a Sunstone so he considers leaving her behind all the while attempting to convince himself that she’s part of the Underfolk, despite the evidence to the contrary, and she should be treated as such. And he’s the head of the family? I just don’t find this likable in a character. I’m hoping for some sort of redemption in the next two.

I’m still trying to figure out how, after the fall, Tal ended up so far away. I understand his shadowguard (which acted like a deus ex machina) glided him down to safety but from what it reads like, it’s like he was hundreds of miles away. And what the *^%^*& is a stretch? Saying it’s almost the length of Tal’s arm doesn’t do me any good because I have no idea how big the kid is. Some 13 year-olds are enormous. So when the tower was 100 stretches away . . . no idea. I could guess but is that really where my energy should be focused when reading a book? Or trying to decipher their units of measure because it’s constantly brought up but never really explained?

If this weren’t one of those three books in one deals, I wouldn’t be reading on. The end of the book ends on what is rightly a chapter mid-book, not the end of the first story which I find kind of annoying. Like how Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3 were filmed together and the end of the second looked like someone in the editing room with a pair of scissors picked a place and snipped on the reel. That’s how this one ended. Ick. And the thing is, if the book has to come out and force the idea that Tal has grown, he really hasn’t. I didn’t see it although I was told he did.

Sure, it was a really fast read. Really fast. But it’s empty. There’s a fair amount going on but like I said, I’m expected to understand the context of this world without any kind of basis for comparison and that really has me thrown. I understand you can’t take the time to go into great detail about your world in order for readers to get it but for the love of god, just give me something. Anything! It’s a 14 point font with 2 inch margins and 196 pages. I’m sure there’s some wiggle room there. Sure, I get it. I get what a Sunstone is. I get those testing things Tal has to take but it’s like walking into a tribe in Africa and just expecting to know and understand what’s going on. Sure, you’ll get it eventually but on your first day, it’s not going to mean much. And that’s what happened here. It’s consistently my first day in the tribe.

The writing was kind of eh as well. It was kind of high falutin and it reminded me of my own work, the beginning of it anyway, when I was aiming for something that the story shouldn’t have been. Are the stilts really necessary? I’ll read the next two but only because they’re attached to the first. I don’t see any other reason to keep going.